Published US Patent Application 2015/0101509 discloses a method of making a composite body employing chitin and glucan-containing mycelia cells and discrete particles wherein a mass of material made up of the chitin and glucan-containing mycelia cells and discrete particles is compressed under heat and compression for a time sufficient to allow cross-linking between the cellular matrix in the mycelia cells to bind the discrete particles together in the compressed body.
Generation of mycelial tissue throughout a woven, or non-woven lignocellulosic, saccharide, or synthetic matrix offers the ability to produce a uniform or non-uniform distribution of biomass that can be used for enhancing or targeting physical properties of a biological composite material prepared in a rolled format. Distribution of the fungal network provides a variety of intra or extracellular matrix components in fungal tissue that may act as a resin during a post-growth activation, or catalyzed process.
Compounds that are often associated with the fungal cell wall include chitin, chitosan, β-glucan, proteins, minerals, and other polysaccharides When exposed to sufficient heat, moisture, or other catalyst, these have the potential to flow, contact, fuse and/or form covalent, physical, or ionic crosslinks throughout the material.
A network of mycelial tissue proliferated across and throughout a fibrous, high flexibility or low-flexibility substrate, can be accessed or activated in a variety of ways to modify the physical characteristics of the fungal cell wall components and subsequently the bulk properties of the biomaterial. This practice proposes preparation, distribution, and activation pathways upon the extracellular (and/or intracellular) fungal cell saccharides, and other macro and micromolecular components.